5 Tips to Consider While Designing an Office Layout

Does your office layout reflect your company culture?

This is the one question every business owner and facility managers should ask to themselves at times.

Office layout has a very broad meaning. From the systematic planning of equipment, machines, furniture to provide sufficient space to employees for work with efficiency comes under this term.

When the management decides to establish an office either by purchasing or renting, it has to cautiously define its plan for organized and scientific segmentation of various departments and equipment for the office.  You have to customize the office layout in a manner which reflects your company culture.

Planning and executing a new office layout is not an easy task. It takes lots of time and brainstorming. Here are few important tips which need to be considered when creating an office layout:

1. ENOUGH SPACE FOR ALL                      

One of the most important parts of office layout designing is to assure proper amount of space to everybody and everything.  An optimal floor plan is needed for placing furniture and other equipment.  Employees, visitors, and clients should be able to move freely around while entering to the office, walking between workstations or going to meeting or discussion room.

There must be well-planned spaces for large equipment like copiers so that every employee in need can use them effectively without any chaos.             

2. DESIGN FOR EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION

It’s a fact for any business that all departments don’t need the same level of collaboration. So you will need to consider an office layout which ensures seamless communication within and between the teams.

A great office layout should ensure to have better inter and intra-department communication.  As a business owner and facility manager it’s your responsibility to plan for an open office or dedicated meeting rooms.

Providing dedicated spaces for discussions and meeting are very important to ensure the right flow of communication at the same time sitting arrangements should be planned for better communication within the teams.

3. FLUID NAVIGATION

There must be an easy navigation throughout the office. There must be proper evacuation plans and fire safety exits. An effective floor plan is essential for the productive work environment. It’s better to think about the teams and their level of collaborations before designing office layout. It’s better to place two teams nearby which needs to collaborate more often. A better office layout design always ensures to have fewer movements of people and assets.

Few questions will help you to design effective office layouts like - Is the main meeting room easily reachable from the main entrance?

Can some visitors easily navigate to CEO’s office?  

Design your office in a way so that everything would be in the place where it should have been.          

4. EFFECTIVE USE OF RESOURCES

An office space layout should be designed in a way which can save costs to the company. There should be the effective use of resources in an office. A study reveals that almost 35% of the average office space remains vacant during work hours.

It’s the responsibility of the facility manager to ensure that the whole team is using the space to its maximum capacity. It’s also important to have a proper plan for effective uses of lighting, heating and cooling costs.

A lot of companies are providing work from home facility to its employees these days. You should take care of these as well while designing office layout.

5. OFFICE AMENITIES

It’s a well-known fact that productivity increases when employees feel happy at the workplace. There should be some specific amenities to make employees feel happy like fitness centers, music rooms or recreational rooms.  These days few employers even add nap rooms or special spaces for relaxation in workplaces.

Facility managers should be very careful in designing these kinds of spaces. They can check with employees about the amenities of their choices to ensure that these spaces wouldn’t end up unused.  

If you’ll implement these points in designing your new office space layout then your employees will feel more comfortable at the workplace and it will result in more productivity.

http://www.fortuneprops.com/blog/5-tips-consider-while-designing-office-layout

5 Tips to Consider While Designing an Office Layout

Does your office layout reflect your company culture?

This is the one question every business owner and facility managers should ask to themselves at times.

Office layout has a very broad meaning. From the systematic planning of equipment, machines, furniture to provide sufficient space to employees for work with efficiency comes under this term.

When the management decides to establish an office either by purchasing or renting, it has to cautiously define its plan for organized and scientific segmentation of various departments and equipment for the office.  You have to customize the office layout in a manner which reflects your company culture.

Planning and executing a new office layout is not an easy task. It takes lots of time and brainstorming. Here are few important tips which need to be considered when creating an office layout:

1. ENOUGH SPACE FOR ALL                      

One of the most important parts of office layout designing is to assure proper amount of space to everybody and everything.  An optimal floor plan is needed for placing furniture and other equipment.  Employees, visitors, and clients should be able to move freely around while entering to the office, walking between workstations or going to meeting or discussion room.

There must be well-planned spaces for large equipment like copiers so that every employee in need can use them effectively without any chaos.             

2. DESIGN FOR EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION

It’s a fact for any business that all departments don’t need the same level of collaboration. So you will need to consider an office layout which ensures seamless communication within and between the teams.

A great office layout should ensure to have better inter and intra-department communication.  As a business owner and facility manager it’s your responsibility to plan for an open office or dedicated meeting rooms.

There must be well-planned spaces for large equipment like copiers so that every employee in need can use them effectively without any chaos.             

2. DESIGN FOR EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION

It’s a fact for any business that all departments don’t need the same level of collaboration. So you will need to consider an office layout which ensures seamless communication within and between the teams.

A great office layout should ensure to have better inter and intra-department communication.  As a business owner and facility manager it’s your responsibility to plan for an open office or dedicated meeting rooms.

Few questions will help you to design effective office layouts like - Is the main meeting room easily reachable from the main entrance?

Can some visitors easily navigate to CEO’s office?  

Design your office in a way so that everything would be in the place where it should have been.          

4. EFFECTIVE USE OF RESOURCES

An office space layout should be designed in a way which can save costs to the company. There should be the effective use of resources in an office. A study reveals that almost 35% of the average office space remains vacant during work hours.

It’s the responsibility of the facility manager to ensure that the whole team is using the space to its maximum capacity. It’s also important to have a proper plan for effective uses of lighting, heating and cooling costs.

A lot of companies are providing work from home facility to its employees these days. You should take care of these as well while designing office layout.

5. OFFICE AMENITIES

It’s a well-known fact that productivity increases when employees feel happy at the workplace. There should be some specific amenities to make employees feel happy like fitness centers, music rooms or recreational rooms.  These days few employers even add nap rooms or special spaces for relaxation in workplaces.

Facility managers should be very careful in designing these kinds of spaces. They can check with employees about the amenities of their choices to ensure that these spaces wouldn’t end up unused.  

If you’ll implement these points in designing your new office space layout then your employees will feel more comfortable at the workplace and it will result in more productivity.

What Do Millennials Expect from the Office Space?

Creating a productive office environment is a dream for all employers. An office space which can attract new talents and which can retain them for longer is the ultimate goal of a facility manager of an organization. Now a new generation of employees known as Millennials has entered the workforce, so it creates a need to understand their preferences of the workplace before any such planning.  

A Millennial is someone born in between the early 80s to late 90s. There is no fixed date of defining this term but it's widely accepted that anyone born between 1982 and 2000 is called a Millennial. They are known for displaying a high level of social consciousness. They are positive and ready to take new experiences. Millennials are also very demanding for the flat work environment and give high importance to work-life balance.

India’s larger population is under age of 30, which is really good for businesses. It's highly recommended for the businesses to adjust their workplaces according to the expectations of Millennials in order to provide them a productive and healthy work environment.

Here are few points to consider while designing office space for Millennials-

PROVIDE FLEXIBILITY IN OFFICE TIMINGS

Most Millennials prefer a flexible work schedule. They respect the work-life balance a lot and feel more productive in an open-ended work hour. Gone are the days when people work mechanically from 9 to 5. This generation is not hesitant in checking and replying work emails after office hours. They are ready to work from home in case of any personal issue. Millennials are ready to interrupt their personal time with work and vice versa.

How this trend is going to affect office spaces?

The employer should give access to their employees during nontraditional work hours. There should be such arrangement so that an employee can start working early morning or can stay till late in the evening. Let them use their own mobile and laptops for official work so that they can do important work from anywhere.  Rate their work based on quality and quantity instead of their availability on the desk.

DOES OPEN OFFICE REALLY WORK?

It’s a common thinking that open office spaces provide more opportunity for collaboration. And it’s quite right too but does it really works for Millennials?

For years now, there has been a push for open floor office plans. The employer thinks that Millennials love collaboration and communication so it’s better to provide them open offices. But open offices are not what they seem. It creates a pressure on employees to look busy when a manager walks in the aisle. Open offices can be distracting for a lot of employees. Sometimes people need privacy to do their work.

So, what is the solution?

There can be specially designed areas for the team collaboration. Bigger companies now started providing a new concept called “Hoteling”. There are different types of work environments for different employees and situations in hoteling. So there are open offices for collaboration and unplanned meetings, and reserved spaces for those who want to work in privacy. Employees can switch from one setup to another depending on the work and situations.

PROVIDE CUTTING EDGE TECHNOLOGY IN OFFICE

Millennials are tech savvy people. They are using cell phones and computers since childhood. They are using technology to socialize with others and at the same time to do their work. So technology is not something extra for Millennials it’s a part of life for them.

This new generation is used to fast changing technology and expect everything to be cutting edge. So don’t burden them with older computers and slow internet. Invest in the new devices and technologies. An employer can also implement "Bring your own device" policy at the workplace. It can save money for the organization and please the employees too.

The whole idea of providing cutting edge technology is to make them more productive. Once employees will get the modern devices and software to work on then it will surely help the organization to achieve the long time goals.

INVEST IN SOME AMENITIES FOR EMPLOYEES

It's an obvious fact that happy employees are the most productive employees. In order to achieve organization goals, you have to make sure that your employees are feeling happy about the work and work environment.

How to make your employees happy?

The answer is providing them those amenities which they need during work. Some bigger employers are investing a lot in employee incentives and perks. On-site gym, free transportation, free food, pet cares, and day care for employee's children in offices are becoming the norm these days. But for SMEs, it can be a daunting task to invest so much money.

So, what are the options for the SMEs for making their employees happy?

You have to calculate how much you can spend on your employee’s amenities and work accordingly. At least provide a coffee machine in office so that they don’t have to go outside for a hot cup. It will also make the office collaboration easy for them. Invest in some tutorials and or certifications for your employees. It will give them a boost in their career and they will feel obliged to the organization.

By providing Millennials a little perk you can make sure that your organization will get the shout out on social media. It will help you in getting the right talent for your company. 

CONCLUSION

Every company is different. A single plan can’t fit for all. You have to decide what best works for your organization. The best way to decide is to communicate with your employees. Make a plan about the expenditure, communicate with employees to know about their expectations and implement accordingly. 

If you are looking for an office space then Fortuneprops can help you. Just let us know your requirements; our experienced professionals help you find a perfect office space that suits your budget and expectations.

How Smaller Offices Help Employees to be more Productive?

Reducing the size of office is one of the best and easiest ways to save money and also to keep the yearly budget in control. If you find any unused space in your office space, you are actually wasting the money which can be used elsewhere. You may think that a smaller office will have a negative impact on the employees’ productivity, which is absolutely in contrast to the fact that smaller office is always beneficial. Smaller office spaces will have some great advantages, which in turn help employees be more productive and creative.

Here are a few benefits offered by small office space:

1.      Less Noise: It’s quite obvious that a smaller office space can accommodate fewer employees, and definitely the noise will be lesser. It’s true that, noise can be a greatest distraction for an employee, which makes it really hard for them to concentrate on their work. But in smaller office spaces, noise will be comparatively lesser than big office spaces, which allows employees to be more creative and productive in their working hours.

2.      Ergonomic Furnishings: Generally, smaller office spaces will have a great interior design along with the ergonomic furnishings offered to the employees. As the company will not have spent a great amount on the office space, they certainly will think of enhancing the beauty by investing on interior design and furnishings. Physical comfort plays a very important role in enhancing the productivity of an employee. When they aren’t comfortable, they often keep changing the position, which kills their time as well as their urge to be creative.

3.      Access to Natural Light: Lightings at workplace is yet another factor that plays a great role in increasing or decreasing the productivity of an employee. In smaller office spaces, one single window can ventilate the vast area of the office, providing the access to natural light to the employees. Of course, there are bulbs that can mimic natural light to some extent, but the effect and freshness of natural light can never be mimicked.

4.       Great Interior: Office interior is also an important element that will have a psychological impact on the employees. For instance, the colour; colours like yellow and orange can make the employees feel creative and cosy; too much of red can bring conflicts through the aggression; blue and green can have a soothing influence on the employees. If you are on a lease term which doesn’t allow you to paint the walls, you can consider peel-and-stick wallpapers that are available in the market today.

Along with the above mentioned key benefits, small office space has got lots of benefits to offer, which make the employees feel more creative during the working hour; smaller the office, productive will be the employees!

To know more information:

Office space Bangalore

Why Renting Office space is the Best Bet for Start-ups?

Now that you have decided to move out of your home office to give your start-up a new start with a professional work environment, and you have to be very careful while choosing the office space you need for your business as it can be a reason for the success or failure of your business. Before you jump in to the office space, you have to decide whether you are buying the space or renting it for few years.

Which do you think is the best and safest bet? Is it buying or renting? While making this decision, you have to keep in mind that yours is a start-up, and one wrong move can be the cause for the failure. You have to consider the pros and cons of renting as well as buying.

The first thing that comes into picture is the budget; do you think you have enough capital to have an office building of your own? Will you be able to manage your employees considering all the expenses? Analysing the pros and cons, it seems that, renting has got wide range of benefits when compared to buying. Don’t you think so?

Here we have gathered the benefits of renting an office space over buying; just take a look and decide it yourself.

1. Allows you set up quickly

Just consider the prospects; if you think of buying an office space, you need to conduct a thorough research about the office spaces available for sale, as you are going to stay there permanently. Once you find a suitable space, next stands the decor, furniture, and other alterations to be done to match the space in accordance to your business. This definitely takes hell lot of time to get set, and starting your operations will be delayed too.

And in case of renting, just choose a fully furnished office space that suits your business type and start your operations. Which is less time-consuming? It’s undoubtedly renting. Isn’t it?

2. The COST

Renting an office space saves you significant amount of money when compared to buying; want to know how? Just take a look at the above mentioned point. While buying an office space, you have to spend lots of money on the things mentioned there like decorating your office space according to the business needs. It covers the wall décor, the furniture and other things. You also have to spend on setting up the phone lines and the internet.

All these costs can be saved on choosing renting the space over buying, and the saved amount of money can be used to improve your business further like training your employees to make them masters in the field, or any other developments.

3. Change according to the needs

Confused? Well, don’t be! When you buy an office space for your own, what would you do if you see that your business is growing and you want to add few more employees, but there is no space available at your office? If your answer is buying a larger space than you actually need, the next question would be what if your business doesn’t go according to the plan and you end up with space remaining empty? You will then have to think about sub leasing the remaining space which would be an additional responsibility.

But when you rent an office space, when a situation arises for you to add few more employees, you’ll always have that room to leave the current space after the term and rent the one that can accommodate your employees.

There are lots of other benefits associated with renting office space over buying, but again it’s you who has to decide as you are the business owner and you know your business prospects better than anyone else.  So choose wisely and make the plan work for you.

For more information:

Furnished office space for rent in Bangalore

Bangalore Drives Demand for Office Space in India

A top city in India has large office space transactions place is Bangalore. An office space absorption witness to more leasing activity is Bangalore with limited supply in India. Bangalore is one preferred location for entrepreneurs to start up business in India and remains the top corporate office destination in India.

Visit the below presentation to know more details:

BangaloreDrives Demand for Office Space in India

Co-Working: New Cool Factor for Today’s Corporates!

Co-working has really been a cool factor for many corporates these days; new business firms today don’t really want to set up a traditional office to carry out their operations, as they hardly spend their time at office. However, they aren’t working from their home either. They actually have found a new style to carry out their work in a professional way, and it’s Co-Working. They get a desk space, Wi-Fi, conference room, copier access, soft drink and a professional working environment.

A flexible space, full-facilities and low rents are actually pushing away the traditional office spaces, and getting a new flavour of working with someone. This new style of self-employed people working with others is changing the way the people are functioning across the globe, as they are sharing their knowledge and ideas with each other. So co-working is now hailed to be the hot trend of 2016. If you haven’t tried it yet, here are few reasons for you to try!

Why Co-working Space?

·         Co-working space has got lots to offer you; you’ll get to use the office desk, chairs, Wi-Fi, conference rooms, printer, photocopy machine and lot more without having to invest much on the office space.

·         The emanation of co-working spaces with low cost memberships have been enticing the start-ups, so that numerous entrepreneurs, consultants and others who need a flexible yet professional workspace are opting out co-working plan.

·         If you have moved out of your old office space because of its high rent, co-working can be an ideal choice for you. It provides you with the bunch of benefits like low rentals, clean working area and also the flexibility to move out of the place as and when you want.

·         If yours is a start-up, all that you would need is a little space to work to cut down the hassle of spending lots on infrastructure. Co-working could be the ideal choice for you as it offers a focused environment while also allowing you to have a brainstorming session with co-workers out there.

Like all the work-driven areas, the main focus here is people and their work, as it offers full-flexibility to the workers in the shared workspace. This certainly benefits the entrepreneurs as there will be a great bonding between the likeminded people working together; they can also exchange their ideas with each other which could be a spark for a great venture ahead.

Still there are lots of people out there who think co-working is not for them! But proven results and the increasing demand for co-working spaces clearly say that it’s far better than spreading out cluster of records and documents at a coffee shop! The rise in demand for this new style of working has made it clear that the trend grows even more, especially among the people of Gen Y.

 To know more about:

Office space in Bangalore